1/ All of the committees will be chaired by Democrats. Schiff at Intelligence. Nadler at Judiciary. Cummings at Oversight. Waters at Financial Services. These Committees have the power to investigate, serve subpoenas, and keep the spotlight on the crimes of Trump and his cronies.

4/ I CAN’T WAIT to watch @RepAdamSchiff systematically destroy @DevinNunes. It will be like in Pac-Man, where Pac-Man eats the magic dot and can go chase down the ghosts. The Putin asset Nunes will wind up in prison or in exile in Baku.

9/ The week ahead is going to be batshit. Trump is well aware that his only chance now is to flood the zone with crap and hope voters get ennui and stay away from the polls. Because if the House flips, Trump is done. The Senate would be nice, but isn’t necessary.

I’m sitting here thinking about this if the House really does flip and all of the chairs change… I think of the political repercussions and even the ones that will inevitably start to reverberate thru the political media as well…

I start to think about who will need to be watching their collective asses and what first comes to mind….

The entire Trump Cabinet…. I could see Ross, Carson, Zinske, Mnuchin, DeVos, Nielsen, and Pence all getting brought before Congressional Committees and being made to answer and justify their actions… same for Sessions and Kelley and all of those lovely Trump children.

I sit back and await Maxine Waters being very polite yet insistent that her questions get answered.

the other shoe that would have to also drop is when the crimes are being uncovered and the actual chain of events are revealed, to have to watch the media actually have to report on what is going on… I know that there is a dedicated minority out there actually doing the work, but to have to sit back and watch Chuck Todd have to consider actually bringing Democrats on his shows to discuss actual policy and events and laws (and stuff!) would be something of a marvel.

and if the wrong doing that we’ve all long suspected is uncovered and revealed, to sit back and watch the indictments begin to be added to the pile (or pyre) of having these thieves answer to their citizenry why they thought it was okay to not just break the law, but flaunt it….

I have no doubts that if the Dems take control, that we will get to watch Nancy P work with the existing leadership to start introducing real legislation and watching the GOP vote down every damn reasonable item that is introduced, gun control, womens rights, immigration reform, true tax reform, strengthening of the ACA and watching those mealymouthed GOP fucks go on record against all of it, setting up their utter annihilation in 2020.

gawd, please let the wave be so big we can counter all of the inherent fuckery the GOP can toss at it….

Before anyone gets too excited, bear in mind that Trump, claiming the election was “rigged,” will likely ignore any and all Dem House subpoenas, and will order everyone in his administration to do the same. He’ll then dare Dems to impeach him for it. Assuming they take him up on it, the Senate GOP will vote to acquit him no matter how guilty he is. He’ll pardon anyone they try to hold in contempt, and assuming anyone in his administration gets convicted, they can appeal to the Brent Kavanaugh Supreme Court to get the convictions overturned, unless Trump hasn’t already pardoned them.

Voted early at Hamilton County BOE yesterday. Happy to say it was packed and I overheard worker say Monday was extremely busy also. Chabot minion approached me and asked if I was there to vote and I said “yes but not for your guy”. I have to exercise great restraint because I just want to scream and curse at these people. I also volunteered to hand out sample ballots on election day at the polls.

Also phone banked for Hamilton County judges last night. We got sample ballots with the Democratically endorsed judicial slate which was most helpful and I was calling to direct absentee voters to the web site in case they didn’t get the mailers.. Having the sample ballot in front of me was so helpful.

Loren Jacobs, who was invited onstage by Vice President Mike Pence to speak at a rally in Michigan for a GOP congressional candidate, was defrocked 15 years ago, according to a spokeswoman for the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations.

“Loren Jacobs was stripped of his rabbinic ordination by the UMJC in 2003, after our judicial board found him guilty of libel,” Monique Brumbach said in an email.

And such are the times we live in, that’s only the second most egregious instance of the GOP stepping on its own dick today.

An impoverished Mexican town nearly flattened by a 2017 earthquake has welcomed thousands of tired and hungry Central American migrants in quiet defiance of Donald Trump’s condemnation of the group.

As Trump ordered 5,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to block the migrant caravan, residents of the southern town of Niltepec – who still live among piles of rubble that once were their homes – welcomed the caravan with homemade soup, medical tents, and diapers for children.

As she spoke, caravan members were stringing up garbage bags to use as tents in Niltepec’s main square. Surrounding buildings were scarred with cracks and gaping holes caused by the 8.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the region on Sept. 7, 2017.

That is soooo Mexico. No matter where I went down there, I never felt unwelcome, and the number of times I was offered food and shelter by people who were dirt poor are innumerable. In other words, the exact opposite of all things trump.

The “EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS” mention “International Private Intelligence” on each page, supposedly dredged up by a company named Surefire Intelligence, which describes itself as a “private intel agency that designs and executes bespoke solutions for businesses and individuals who face complex business and litigation challenges.”

I’m a little worried that Dems will fuck things up. Honestly, I’m not convinced that we’re going to even win the House. It’s gerrymandered to fuck and you have voter suppression on top of that. If we get a 1 seat majority I’ll be happy, but I’m not sure it will happen until it happens.

Are you looking forward to being called to testify? If you aren’t a personal friend of Drumpf you will have to show up, or fly back home to RU, just in time for the world over there to ice over for the winter.

Because you sure don’t sound like a Democrat working for the next election, not at all. Except for electrical cars, this appears to be nearly your first experiment in political commentary, and I would rate it a dead failure, indeed. Why did you bother?

@Kathleen: Hope you’re doing well! Glad you got the early voting out of the way, I’m gonna try to go to the Hamilton county BOE this weekend.

Was approached by Chabot’s guy at the Lebanon Blues festival this summer. Told him I supported Aftab. Same reaction, there was much (internal) gnashing of teeth on my part. These people are truly evil, and they need to be voted out of power completely and absolutely. Everytime I see an ad on TV or (especially) one of their supporters in person, there is an instantaneous stress response: the hands start getting clammy and tremble, breath quicken, I can feel the adrenaline squirting through the system…

Btw, you’re right, the Hamilton democratic party website is a wonderful resource. I’ve been sending folks there for info on the various ballot initiatives and candidates.

@J R in WV: I’m just going to end it all. It’s hopelesshopelesshopeless. We never do anything right and when we do we fuck it all up anyway. Why do I even bother getting up in the morning, just for another round of defeat at the hands of the Ubermensch.

@OzarkHillbilly:
I love the work done digging up surefire’s ’employees’. They had a backlit photo of the head of the company that is an exact match for a photo (background & all) of Jacob. Two of their employers are best known for their work for a stock photo company, One is a model in Israel and another is an actor

@OzarkHillbilly:
Because of who I am I am sympathetic to people who feel all is lost. Though I do have to say that was a level of defeat I have not yet approached. I missed his earlier comments but my memory is no match for all you guys, I have a hard time remembering some of the regulars as well. Hopefully this guy will either get up or out.
Things are bad – and still I fight, things are not going to get greatly better any time soon – and still I fight. We are all going to die and the earth will be consumed by our star – and still I fight

@OzarkHillbilly: I think it’s a fancy way to say we’ll tailor (the solution to your ‘complex business and litigation challenges’) especially for your problem. ( I should hope so. Otherwise it’s just something copied directly off a website isn’t it?)

@Schlemazel: I suspect it’s more Google than memory. It was pretty easy to find all my posts here, and take a quick run down memory lane (I’m an infrequent, to be sure, but I’ve been on-and-off here since ’08)

The ideas that (A) the Dems will take the House and begin investigations; and (B) the Traitor-in-Chief will claim Executive Privilege (with a reasonable chance Fake Justice Rapey McFratboy and his merry band of fascists will “OK by us!”) are not fundamentally in conflict.

Or do you think that Lying Littledick would say to Schiff/Waters/Nadler/whomever “Oh, OK, if the House requests it, I guess I should comply”?

Gaming out things to a reasonably-likely scenario is not necessarily being Eeyore-ish, it’s just cynicism of a sort. Considering what Fuckhead-in-Chief has done over the last 21 months, this shouldn’t be a surprise.

I do get rather tired of the “Eeyore” label being thrown about at the drop of a hat, when someone dares to say “um, things might not turn out as well as we all want/hope, and here’s why.” It’s not a statement of “give up!” despite what sometimes gets bandied about here; it’s a way to semi-inoculate oneself against the reasonable possibility of disappointment if/when/after we win.

likewise, if ignoring subpoenas is in fact going to happen, there are responses to that and they should be gamed out. it isn’t hopeless, but it isn’t stupid to think this stuff through if there’s a good chance it’ll happen.

@chopper: You’ll never get impeachment through the Senate. No way. And you cannot trust the Supreme Court, even if the law seems crystal clear.

But you can hold hearings and when the Administration repeatedly refuses to testify, then you make that public. You actually investigate things. You pass popular legislation through the House and watch the Senate refuse to pass it. Then you tell the Public about that too. You get the states to pass laws requiring disclosure of taxes for Presidential candidates in order to make it harder for Trump to run in 2020. In short, you spend the next two years setting the conditions for voting these assholes out in 2020. That’s how we win.

I understand your point/concerns. (To be clear, I don’t mean “concern-troll concerns.”) But I look at what he wrote, didn’t see it as being that much of an “all is lost!” comment, and adjusted my frame of reference accordingly. Had it looked like a “just effing give up!” comment to me, I’d probably agree with you.

One of my pet peeves here lately is the too-quick (and often inappropriate) labeling of some as “Eeyores.” To me, there’s a difference between saying “why bother?/Give up!” and using the equivalent of “WASF” to motivate oneself or as dark humor. I know plenty here disagree with my take on it.

@SFAW: We all have times when we are discouraged. At least most of us do. Sometimes I share when I am feeling that and other times I stay away from commenting until that passes because I know that fear or negativity can be contagious, and I don’t want to pull others down when there is so much work to be done.

But this new guy at #8 isn’t sharing his feelings. He jumped right in and said hold on, not so fast, nothing you are hoping for will work. He’s literally and deliberately countering the “happy thoughts” discussion on this thread.

So while I agree with you that it’s not helpful to label a regular as an Eeyore if s/he is going through a rough patch, that’s not what the comment at #8 felt like at all.

From one of those tweets: “The Senate would be nice, but isn’t necessary.”

It would be a lot more than nice. Control of the Senate would mean an end to Trump, Sessions, and Mitch throwing as many Federalist Society-approved judges onto the Federal courts as they can get away with in the time they’ve got left.

@SFAW: Fair enough. I’m with WaterGirl at 48, though. Re-reading the post in question, it definitely comes off to me as “Nothing will actually get any better even if Democrats retake the House, and Dotard will never be held to account. So, this is all pointless.” That’s pretty Debby Downer to me.

The poster could easily have said “Clearly, there are some optics changes that would occur immediately, because for the last 22 months while there’s been a scandal a day none of them go anywhere with a complicit, spineless Republican Congress that won’t f’ing investigate the flagrant corruption of this administration. Before we get too fired up about Schiff and Waters banging their gavels, though, we should consider that past behavior would suggest…” and then talk aboutwhat Democratic strategy should be for dealing with Drumpf Administration brinksmanship on Congressional subpoena compliance. Because we got none of that, just the downside, I’m sort of leaning troll. I note that the poster in question hasn’t commented again in this thread, too (at least before I started writing this post).

Whatever, back to happy thoughts for me. May next Tuesday be the first in a lot of steps on the long, long road to recovery for our democracy.

@J R in WV: You know nothing about me. I’ve been a Democratic activist for many years, working in campaigns both local (St. Louis MO) and national since the Kerry campaign. It’s definitely worth getting Dems in. But we shouldn’t be deluded about what’s going to happen. This will be a long fight, and there’s no magic that’ll kick Trump out or fix the damage he’s cause easily.

If things go as simply as Greg Olear suggests, then I’ll be ecstatic. But I’m pretty sure it’ll go down more like the way I’ve outlined.

Sorry if you feel I “jumped” on you. You were the first response I saw to his post, and I didn’t think he was being an oh-woe-is-me commenter, and expressed my “thoughts.” Frankly, I “jumped” on Ozark a lot harder than I (theoretically) “jumped” on you. But I don’t feel it a holy cause to respond to every commenter with whom I disagree.

As I’ve said, the propensity to label (in my view) too many commenters as Eeyores is a pet peeve of mine. In much the same way that Eeyores — real or imagined — are the pet peeve of some others. (And, no, I’m not talking about you.)

ETA: And, to be more clear (I hope): I have a different definition of “Eeyore.” The way it is often bandied about in this joint is to imply that the commenter has given up, and “why bother?” And that (perceived) definition gets applied far too easily.